In my intro to the Checkmate monitor video I mentioned how I'd love to have this on a datacenter bench and maybe throw a switch in there as well. Well now I'm going to do that.
Now that I'm starting to use all these computers for more than a couple minutes once every few months it's time to build a proper isolation network. I'm beginning the process or archiving loads of Atari ST and GCR Mac floppies so I definitely want to have somewhere safe to do that work. The little Raspberry Pi 3 in my monitor will serve as the bridge, serving old and insecure protocols to that network so we can have the full '90s experience. So it's listening on Telnet and FTP to host archives of all the NeXT software ever made for instance. I'll be dialing back Samba security to the point that a Windows 3.11 or 95 machine can connect to the fileshare. The Pi will also provide the WiFi network for exciting things coming up like my FujiNet cartridge that I haven't even tried to play with yet. I will very likely move DHCP and DNS resolution from the default gateway to the Pi just so I can pick the whole thing up and take it places. Plug devices in and they'll be able to get an address and browse by hostnames and stuff.
It's so nice to have an all-in-one solution and I'm happy to stick a little PoE powered switch in the Checkmate to provide the networking for all of it. This monitor is now a "pick it up and go" solution to demo a wholly contained network of 1980s and 1990s machines where no one can hurt them. If I went to things like VCF, this is what I'd bring to run my whole table.
That monitor is going to feature in a lot of my stuff in a big way. Every time I do a project I find a new use for it! Running desktop computers through multiple VGA switch-boxes? Still looks great!
Again, sorry for the "beginner" nature of all of this but I'm playing with kdenlive and learning how to speed things up and make short clip montages, so you can watch me suffer as I learn :-) It's basically 1978 PBS, WTF do you want it fits my entire aesthetic. Look where I live.
Stay tuned to see my friction-free and more importantly secure way of interacting with all these backend systems. Coming Soon!
I've got a ton of video, all of it garbage, about making a dumb shelf and backplate for my "retro things Isolation Network" that I'm trying to get down to like 20 minutes.
I think the thing to do is watch it all through, then make notes and then go back and execute the notes rather than try to do it one at a time as individual tweaks.
To manage this I'm gonna try and use my internal Wiki with a link on the homepage to like my Blog Notes category so I can go update stuff as I watch, then check them off as I complete them.
We'll see. I just want to put up the dumb "Switch in a Monitor!" video so I can do the really cool stuff of "How I am securing this since no one else talks about this stuff.
But since I've been working on this in the last two days:
My NeXTStation started hanging at the ROM Monitor check screen. I know this has happened before and I know I changed the iSCSI image but I think the real answer was something stupider than that.
This would be a way cooler demo if I had a second machine, like say a NeXTStation which was just working awesome like 3 days ago. I think I gotta just fire up the 95 PC what am I even thinking here duh.
I just replaced my webserver hardware up to the hard drive. I suspect this thing's problems aren't hardware but you never know and it's easier than moving everything.
I dropped one of the very nice thumbscrews from the monitor while I was wrangling cables. It's in the room somewhere. But if you've ever worked in a datacenter you know that a lot of the stuff you drop is just gone into the rack somewhere and you'll never see it again.
Bonus points for nice and beefy but non-ferrous objects. So if I could hit 'em with a magnet they'd probably be super easy to find.
NeXTStation status updated to Dead. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again
My stupid thumb is still bleeding after cutting it on Friday. I've lived with much worse without going to a doctor don't you worry. It could probably use like a stitch or something. I should figure out how to do that.
I've updated all my tools and unit tests for the video no one ever makes about how they actually do the work of dealing with their Retro networks.
Argh. I've got so much stuff to build and I just want to get at it already instead of wasting time editing nonsense that didn't even really work out!
This is what it looks like when I do every single project all at once. When I do one thing, but that depends on 5 other things so it explodes the office! I love this. A person with training might call this a "manic episode" but I choose to say I'm super excited and motivated. Basically I've been sitting in this office for 10 years saying "When I have 10 minutes to think, I'm gonna...".
Well today those things were:
Re-cable the henge and fix everything ugly. That largely happened today.
Put in a shelf and clean up the mess that is this VGA switcher and cabling (NeXT + 2 PCs)
Put non-UPS in-rack power in that one rack for non-essential machines
Re-think my desk/workbench side of things and cable everything up tidily
Doesn't look tidy, but believe me it's really clean under all the mess!
I'm going to stick some Panduit under the new power strip and tidy up all the 9' Model M cable, I'm doing a longer VGA cable right now:
That bin in there has one of every analog A/V cable, adapter and dingus. There are lots of angled and shorter cables coming to clean that up more. The black thing is the NeXT station breakout box for VGA, sound & keyboard. The VGA cable on the left is for stuff I want to plop down and work on like a 1u server or a PC or laptop. I have two P4 PCs that I've never even powered up because doing so would be a hassle, well Hassle No More! I have a bunch of rackmount stuff to build to replace this unstable webserver. I'm going to start with one and work my way up to two servers splitting the load here.
This one might be sort of tricky. Hey Natalie, do you guys sell anything we could like taste test in the store? Maybe I should email the lighting place like what we used to do back in the before times.
I'm building a shelf in this cubby to hold that super un-weildy VGA switcher. It's awesome but I would have paid triple the price for just 5 ports in a row rather than this octopus nonsense. It was $30, what do I want.
I need to mount that radio too, it looks super cool. I'm also going to make that the home for things like the NeXT VGA breakout box and hopefully the first USB keyboard and mouse dingus they sell. And a bin-full of adapters and "general retro-ey converters and plugs"
So I have this vintage brass and painted woodgrain gooseneck lamp which is awesome looking and so perfect for exactly what I need it for. Imagine sticking like a flashlight on its end pointing up vs this thing. But hoo man this thing's going to burn my house down like that bulb gets scalding hot within a minute or two.
These are 12V bulbs so that base has a transformer in it that gets nice and warm but gives switchable low/hi which is nice. It uses GE 1156F bulbs, which are like automotive backup lights or in a garage door opener. So I want like a modern LED equivalent that is going to look warm and nice like this thing but searching I don't think I trust buying anything I don't see with my own eyes first or someone personally vouches for. Whatever it is I'm not buying four of them for $10 without seeing them lit for real with my eyes.
I want the pleasant light qualities of a 60 year old incandescent light bulb made for one of like 2 "warm ambient light" scenarios for this bulb.
I'd pay $20 for a single bulb if I knew it was exactly what I wanted. I'm sensing a theme in this post.
Today was my last day at work, so of course I'm pulling an all-nighter working on projects and building my workflow. I don't think that will ever stop.
*I just got yelled at at 2:40am for pulling an all-nighter right now today. I'm like dude, it's my vacation, and this is me, relaxing on my goddamn vacation! I can sleep in a few days*
This is the desk I sat at for the last 5 years of my job and for two days a week for a decade before that. To be honest it feels weird for the job to be gone and for me to still be allowed in here. This is likely the last photo that will have my work laptop running Gibson in it. I am currently running through every bin and every parts drawer and converting my entire life over from full time network and server admin to ... someone who just hangs out and does projects and upgrades and documentation for a while.
And this is a sneak peek at what I mean when I say "I have a lot of projects in mind for this CheckMate monitor". I'm waiting for one sort-of crucial piece to this puzzle, then I'm going to make an in-depth tour of how I run all of this stuff, from media services to radio broadcasts. I'll be upgrading and making a lot of sysadmin improvements now that I have been freed for a bit. Retro computers are a piece, but are not really the "purpose" of this pile of stuff. My talents lie elsewhere. Fun times ahead as I embrace my inner digital hermit! I will explain why that is a good thing.
More Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and DEVO, Not as much Bono
TL;DR: Here's why I don't want to see "legal firearms" at local rallies in my town.
I want to see a movement like '60s Black Empowerment and the Pettus Bridge and Kent State and Stonewall heroes. I do not want to live in armed-skirmish-Northern Ireland. We remember the names of the relatively few who lost their lives in the mid-century US, because there were relatively few of them. And look at all of what their sacrifice actually gained us. Voting rights, school integration rights, abortion rights, women's rights, LGBTQ Rights. Think very hard at the progress made in the last 70 years through persistent non-violent protest movements.
Yes, violent fascists are in power. But they've been in power before. The actions of their thousands of assholes is no match for our millions of Regular People who don't want to see their Regular Guy Suburban neighbors eyes burned out of their head with pepper spray or shot 10 times in the back. That guy they just hauled away still has my skil saw.
We can get it back (Not the saw, that thing's just gone let it go). We don't need to walk around armed to protest for peace.
I am not victim blaming. It's not my opinion that Alex Pretti had any role in provoking his own death. My opinion was that he only would have used that weapon in the defense of others facing violence. ICE pepper sprayed this man in the face, and never did he try to shoot them for that. He remained calm. It's unclear to me when they even noticed he had a gun. It seems it may have been after they'd already made their decision that he wasn't ever going to get back up. I'm not going to watch that man die so I can frame-by-frame figure it out.
This is in response to this video about which I have no context. But it's basically a MAGA prick who rolled in all Maga Prick-like and IRL PWN some Libs and then panicked like anyone would when they've mouthed off and decide they gotta go. My opinion is that Pretti would not have used that opportunity to unload his firearm in the MAGA guy's face. As a public servant he would have attended to the injured student. Because he's a regular, nice person who feels a duty to his fellow people.
It's shocking, but not shocking. This will be played by the MAGA right as "bad apples on /both sides/ guys remember that ANTIFA lady who tried to run down that ICE guy?" The civilian hard-MAGA right buys all that and so they feel like they can retaliate in kind when they try and trigger some libs and things get a little too real. Regardless of what an asshole he is, think about this guy's state. He's all jacked up on adrenaline because he braved marching into the lib crowd and talked some smack. Hurries back to the truck. People are gathering. Decides it's Time to Go.
It's a case study in "there's suddenly a crowd of people around my car yelling at me I better get outta here, oh god did I hit one of them I better GO!".
The difference is the ICE agents unload in your face you when you panic under those conditions. As any Regular Person would panic. The Libs do not do retaliate with firepower, and must not IMHO. We are not the violent ones here. This is what non-violent resistance looks like to me. Everyone can do what they can. When the violent fascist government marches straight into us with riot gear, we remain peaceful. And we remain there. There are Trump Flag waving pricks at the No Kings rallies in my town. They get jeered. But they don't get shot at. And I don't want armed Regular Libs in my town square ready to "protect" us. This lady didn't die did she? Would it have helped anyone if this guy got lit up for that?
There's a lot of power in the moment when a peaceful resistance movement is met with state sanctioned violence, and they're not armed to respond. They're just a bunch of regular people being gunned down. And things start moving really fast politically when regular moms in a mini van full of cheerios are being gunned down by feds armed like a military. From 100 angles. On the nightly news. Like you're watching Idi Amin.
The optics works. Most people are disgusted by the national guard having to protect a little kid walking to school because of her color, whether it's in the 50s or now. Churches were bombed and community aid workers murdered then also. But there wasn't a race war because you can't really have a "war" when only one side chooses to use force.
If I take one in the face while peacefully gathered in my literal town's square my final thought isn't going to be "damn I wish someone was armed so we could shoot back".
I would hope I'm thinking of John Lewis.
This isn't Crips v. Bloods ca 1987. It's LAPD v. All of Regular Guy LA in the '90s.
My friend happened to give us a 4 drawer grey parts bin so I decided to build some shelves and an easier to reach space for all the day-to-day rack screws and fasteners, Velcro, dinguses and connectors and whatever.
I'm transitioning my mindset from a fully-stocked laptop bag ready to go with all my stuff to that of a more stationary workbench because I will rarely have to just "get up, grab my bag and go" like I could have to do now. I can even just reach that TI calculator and do the calculation faster than I can go to the KDE menu and launch kcalc on the rare occasions I need it.
The answer is absolutely almost never "zip ties or twist ties". That's why the top two drawers are just Velcro.
This on the other hand is just over the top wasteful storage hubris:
Unfortunately the drawers are exactly too shallow to have the cover with handy glued-in map on the iFixit kit, but luckily it sticks to the side just fine. You know iFixit has PDFs that print out to exactly fit inside this screwdriver kit, right?
Jeanne & The Darlings - How Can You Mistreat The One You Love
I've got a backup management tool set to write. I'll post it when I've got something written and implemented.
I have a small-ish NAS. I currently do nightly Read-Only backups to another NAS stored at a friend's house. Every so often I'll do a "destructive" (Copy & Delete) backup to clean up any files I've deleted or moved since there would be two copies on the target. I only run that when I'm reasonably sure things are "good" on the main device.
My new plan involves a second off-site backup and will give me an effective 2 month backup retention period.
I've mentioned my general goals for this ST. SCSI enclosure, disk imaging, Spectre GCR and stuff. But there's a lot I'm doing behind the scenes like how I had to build the Practical Solutions Monitor Master hack to get video working.
One project I'm working on is documenting everything we have and I'm making internal Wiki pages for each of these items as I go.
My Atari to-do list is pretty much a best-of ST gizmos and doodads.
Far East keyboard vendors "are defining the lower end of the market, and I wish them a lot of luck, but we offer a better membrane keyboard, with better tactile feel, and a lot of service and market support here in the U.S. We offer Cadillacs, and are not the cheapest guys in the world."
- Lexmark's manager of market development Dick McCall regarding falling keyboard prices in 1993, just after spin-off from IBM
I recently bought a new Model F SSK. I've always felt bad for my role in The '90s Purge, wherein if I had a dollar for all the models M and F that ended up in a dumpster...well I could have put a down payment on a mortgage for a new modern Model F :-) I am not, repeat, not knocking the price. It's actually quite a value if you consider that a Model M sold for hundreds of 1989 dollars (MSRP direct from IBM anyway) as the cost-reduced, slightly crappier replacement for the F. It's also a labor of love and I like to support these sorts of projects. It's /incredibly/ well made and is just an absolute monster.
Aside from some initial glitchiness with a couple of "iffy" flippers and springs, we got it up and running relatively quickly. Definitely get the First Aid Kit, in fact I'll probably get another just to have it. The only modification I made from the default was to remove the fixed USB cable and replace it with a USB-C M -> USB-A F dingus so I could just swap it with my normal keyboard cable.
This steel & aluminum Model F also makes a Model M feel like the toy at the bottom of the Cap'n Crunch box.
Witness:
The model f ssk is pretty pingy but is a total pleasure to type on. My cow-orkers are lucky I didn't haul it down to our 3 day on-site meeing or they'd have tried to murder me in the first 10 minutes. Luckily it doubles as a weapon so I'd have been just fine.
See. The model M sounds like and feels like a children's toy by comparison. IT'S WHISPER QUIET!
Working in the computer store in the '90s I always loved the Model Fs we had around and tried to use them as bench machines, but they were /just/ that little bit too oddly laid out to be useful. So I heaved 'em. Lots of Model Ms too, and 5150s...yeah yeah. Progress. How was I supposed to know I could have made a lucrative career out of making videos about the crap in the basement of a computer store 30 years later?
I like the Model M keyboards I've got, but without fail a couple of weeks into using one my hands start to hurt and I worry about "This is it, after 40 years of this shit I'm finally getting some kind of RSI nonsense". Then I switch to a Keychron and everything is better after a day or two. It's weird because my natural tendency is to kind of hammer on keyboards, or at least I feel like I do, what do I know.
The F feels a lot lighter while typing even if it sounds much more violent. I haven't had any strain yet.
Verdict: Get one! They're Great! - As long as you don't mind maddening frustration when you assemble the whole thing and a single goddamn key won't actuate so you have to take all the caps back off and rip it apart. Not that I had to do that several times. Honestly I wasn't going to get this because I knew from reviews that it shipped without the keycaps and it looked irritating and fiddly to get it going (and I was right!) but Natalie talked me into it. I'm leaving the "locking" tab bent open since like, is it even possible for that backplate to slide? Time will tell!
Again, none of that is a knock on the manufacturing of this thing. It's /great/ and I'm sure it'll last me until I die. I just know my limitations and that I have a very low tolerance for frustration since I've been abused and burned by work for far too long and as such have no patience for friction unless I'm being paid. I don't care how much fucking hacker-chow gets in there, these keycaps aren't coming off to clean or anything unless I absolutely have to.
I was certain that one of Thomas's videos on the modern Model F showed the key assembly process, but I can't find it. Enjoy anyway.
